Short Stories by Robert A. Heinlein Vol 2 Part 168

I guess my voice carries too well, for my reply got us a really dirty look from the Speaker. We got up hastily and left.

Once outside I asked Joe what had happened that he was back so soon. He would not touch it,' he told me. Said that he couldn't afford to antagonize the a.s.sociation.'

Does that finish us?'

Not at all. Sally and I are going to see another member right after lunch. He's tied up in a committee meeting at the moment.'

We stopped in a restaurant where Jedson had arranged to meet Sally Logan. Jedson ordered lunch, and I had a couple of cans of devitalized beer, insisting on their bringing it to the booth in the unopened containers. I don't like to get even a little bit tipsy, although I like to drink. On another occasion I had paid for wizard-processed liquor and had received intoxicating liquor instead.

Hence the unopened containers.

I sat there, staring into my gla.s.s and thinking about what I had heard that morning, especially about the bill to outlaw all magic. The more I thought about it the better the notion seemed. The country had gotten along all right in the old days before magic had become popular and commercially widespread. It was unquestionably a headache in many ways, even leaving out our present troubles with racketeers and monopolists. Finally I expressed my opinion to Jedson.

But he disagreed. According to him prohibition never does work in any field. He said that anything which can be supplied and which people want will he supplied

- law or no law. To prohibit magic would simply be to turn over the field to the crooks and the black magicians.

I see the drawbacks of magic as well as you do,' he went on, but it is like firearms. Certainly guns made it possible for almost anyone to commit murder and get away with it. But once they were invented the damage was done. All you can do is to try to cope with it. Things like the Sullivan Act - they didn't keep the crooks from carrying guns and using them; they simply took guns out of the hands of honest people.

It's the same with magic. If you prohibit it, you take from decent people the enormous boons to be derived from a knowledge of the great arcane laws, while the nasty, harmful secrets hidden away in black grimoires and red grimoires will still be bootlegged to anyone who will pay the price and has no respect for law.

Personally, I don't believe there was any less black magic practised between, say, 1750 and 1950 than there is now, or was before then. Take a look at

Pennsylvania and the hex country. Take a look at the Deep South. But since that time we have begun to have the advantages of white magic too.'

Sally came in, spotted us, and slid into one side of the booth. My,' she said with a sigh of relaxation, I've just fought my way across the lobby of the

Const.i.tution. The "third house" is certainly out in full force this trip. I've never seen em so thick, especially the women.'

She means lobbyists, Archie,' Jedson explained. Yes, I noticed them. I'd like to make a small bet that two thirds of them are synthetic.'

I thought I didn't recognize many of them,' Sally commented. Are you sure, Joe?'

Not entirely. But Bodie agrees with me. He says that the women are almost all mandrakes, or androids of some sort. Real women are never quite so perfectly beautiful - nor so tractable. I've got him checking on them now.'

In what way?'

He says he can spot the work of most of the magicians capable of that high-powered stuff. If possible we want to prove that all these androids were made by Magic, Incorporated - though I'm not sure just what use we can make of the fact.

Bodie has even located some zombies,' he added.

Not really!' exclaimed Sally. She wrinkled her nose and looked disgusted. Some people have odd tastes.'

They started discussing aspects of politics that I know nothing about, while

Sally put away a very sizeable lunch topped off by a fudge ice-cream cake slice.

But I noticed that she ordered from the left-hand side of the menu - all vanis.h.i.+ng items, like the alcohol in my beer.

I found out more about the situation as they talked. When a bill is submitted to the legislature, it is first referred to a committee for hearings. Ditworth's bill, A B 22, had been referred to the Committee on Professional Standards. Over in the Senate an identical bill had turned up and had been referred by the lieutenant governor, who presides in the Senate, to the Committee on Industrial

Practices.

Our immediate object was to find a sponsor for our bill; if possible, one for each house, and preferably sponsors who were members, in their respective houses, of the committees concerned. All of this needed to be done before

Ditworth's bills came up for hearing.

I went with them to see their second-choice sponsor for the a.s.sembly. He was not on the Professional Standards Committee, but he was on the Ways and Means

Committee, which meant that he carried a lot of weight in any committee.

He was a pleasant chap named Spence - Luther B. Spence - and I could see that he was quite anxious to please Sally - for past favours, I suppose. But they had no more luck with him than with their first-choice man. He said that he did not have time to fight for our bill, as the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee was sick and he was chairman pro tem.

Sally put it to him flatly. Look here, Luther, when you have needed a hand in the past, you've got it from me. I hate to remind a man of obligations, but you will recall that matter of the vacancy last year on the Fish and Game

Commission. Now I want action on this matter, and not excuses!'

Spence was plainly embarra.s.sed. Now, Sally, please don't feel like that. You're getting your feathers up over nothing. You know I'll always do anything I can for you, but you don't really need this, and it would necessitate my neglecting things that I can't afford to neglect.'

What do you mean, I don't need it?'

I mean you should not worry about A B 22. It's a cinch bill.'

Jedson explained that term to me later. A cinch bill, he said, was a bill introduced for tactical reasons. The sponsors never intended to try to get it enacted into law, but simply used it as a bargaining point. It's like an asking price' in a business deal.

Are you sure of that?'

Why, yes, I think so. The word has been pa.s.sed around that there is another bill coming up that won't have the bugs in it that this bill has.'

After we left Spence's office, Jedson said, Sally, I hope Spence is right, but I don't trust Ditworth's intentions. He's out to get a stranglehold on the industry. I know it!'

Luther usually has the correct information, Joe.'

Yes, that is no doubt true, but this is a little out of his line. Anyhow, thanks, kid. You did your best.'

Call on me if there is anything else, Joe. And come Out to dinner before you go; you haven't seen Bill or the kids yet.'

I won't forget.'

Jedson finally gave up as impractical trying to submit our bill, and concentrated on the committees handling Ditworth's bills. I did not see much of him. He would go out at four in the afternoon to a c.o.c.ktail party and get back to the hotel at three in the morning, bleary-eyed, with progress to report.

He woke me up the fourth night and announced jubilantly, It's in the bag,

Archie!'

You killed those bills?'

Not quite. I couldn't manage that. But they will be reported out of committee so amended that we won't care if they do pa.s.s. Furthermore, the amendments are different in each committee.